The cataract removal / lens replacement surgery went fine. Took a couple of advil at the surgery upon leaving but didn’t need anything later. This morning Dr. Long says there is less swelling than he had expected and in general things look good. I was amazed to be able to read a sign on the door from a few feet away!
The good outcome didn’t surprise me, though of course it is pleasing. I assume nothing will go wrong as long as i take the drops i need to take for the next week. But i was thinking, as i prepared for the surgery, of a poem i wrote (I was surprised to find that it was as long ago as 2004) in response to an Emergency Room visit after a particularly bad attack of asthma.
This is written as a cinquain, a specialized form of haiku in which you write lines of 2,4,6,8, and 2 syllables. It came out all right, and I was pleased to remember it. There is a saying, you know, that says “God has no hands to use but ours.” Regardless of your theology, it ought to be a statement you can agree with. The poem:
E.R
No breath.
Resource’s end.
Surrendering control
To these calm strangers, knowing them
God’s hands.
-10-13-2004